Georgia: rebel Abkhazia works to establish ties with countries throughout world
November 23, 2009
ITAR-TASS
Sukhumi - Relations between [Georgia's breakaway] Abkhazia and its great neighbour - Russia, which is the permanent member of the UN Security Council - are not just partnership, but a strategic union, Abkhaz foreign minister Sergey Shamba said at his briefing in Sukhumi today. "In accordance with the agreement on friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance, Russia will act on Abkhazia's side in case of a military threat. Now that external security is secured, it is possible to concentrate on domestic problems and issues of our economic development," the foreign minister said.
At the same time, the Abkhaz foreign minister stressed that he favoured development of relations with other countries.
He said that an Abkhaz delegation was currently on a return visit to Iran. "An Iranian delegation came to us this year, realizing that Abkhazia is playing an important role in the strategy of security in this region. Some time ago, our delegations visited Libya, Central and South America. Our representative recently returned from Ecuador, where we are doing some work. We are working in countries in different parts of the world," Shamba noted.
He said that it was necessary to establish partnership, trade, economic, and cultural relations with different countries. "We are open to everyone, who wants to speak with us," Shamba noted.
He also said that it was visible how the EU's attitude towards Abkhazia was changing. As an example, he quoted a statement by Peter Semneby, EU special representative for the South Caucasus, who had said, speaking about the upcoming presidential election in Abkhazia that it (election) was important for Europe.
"This means something. We are always told that 'the EU will not recognize Abkhazia', but at the same time they constantly say that they want to cooperate with the people of Abkhazia. This also means that Europe realizes how important Abkhazia is and it does not want to sever contacts with us," Shamba noted.
He said that "although Turkey is a NATO member and does not recognize Abkhazia, it is building its own policy regarding this republic". "We have a conflict only with Georgia, but we have to resolve it too," Shamba said. "My firm belief is that Georgia and we should resolve the problem of peaceful coexistence and we will sooner or later address the issue".
